Ubisoft Responds to Gimping ‘Watch Dogs PC’ Build – ‘It was Done to Make the Game Stable and Appreciateable’

Remember a few days ago when the gaming community discovered that there were hidden graphic files that unlocked the ‘ultra; E3 2012 look of “Watch Dogs”? Well Ubisoft replied to that some time ago and I thought it would be worth covering. The reply is in my humble opinion a classic PR reply and I think you would better see for yourself.

‘Ultra’ E3 2012 ‘Watch Dogs’ Build Was Turned Off to make the Game More Stable – Ubisoft

For a quick recap, basically multiple settings, that were apparently completely harmless, were turned off in the PC Build. These settings were more or less the same as those used in E3 2012. Now, I think it is worth mentioning that the reports we got were of increased stabliity and even better frame rate after the application of these ‘locked’ settings. Here is the official Ubisoft reply:

The dev team is completely dedicated to getting the most out of each platform, so the notion that we would actively downgrade quality is contrary to everything we’ve set out to achieve. We test and optimize our games for each platform on which they’re released, striving for the best possible quality. The PC version does indeed contain some old, unused render settings that were deactivated for a variety of reasons, including possible impacts on visual fidelity, stability, performance and overall gameplay quality. Modders are usually creative and passionate players, and while we appreciate their enthusiasm, the mod in question (which uses those old settings) subjectively enhances the game’s visual fidelity in certain situations but also can have various negative impacts. Those could range from performance issues, to difficulty in reading the environment in order to appreciate the gameplay, to potentially making the game less enjoyable or even unstable.

Thanks for playing “Watch Dogs” and stay safe on the mean streets of Chicago.

-The Watch Dogs Team

So if Ubisoft is to be believed then the settings can cause unstability, loss of appreciation and decreased performance. I dont know about the first and latter but I can attest to the fact that better explosions do equal more appreciation. And lets assume for a second that the settings did make the PC Build unstable isn’t it Ubisoft’s job to do justice to the platform they are releasing “Watch Dogs” too? In this case the PC? Then again, this comment was found in the PC Build as well: